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Speaker Paul Ryan has announced that in January the House will take up the reconciliation bill considered earlier this month by the U.S. Senate. The landmark legislation, passed by a vote of 52–47, defunds Planned Parenthood — America’s largest abortion provider — of taxpayer dollars and reroutes the funding to comprehensive health-care centers. The Huffington Post was mystified when the Senate approved the bill: Why would moderate Republicans, some of whom face tough re-election battles in 2016, vote in favor of the measure? Let me clue them in: It’s because the voters they represent — even many who identify themselves as pro-choice — have deep misgivings about abortion on demand, and are horrified by the practices of the nation’s largest abortion provider

Stories of miscarriage shock are becoming more common. Not the surprise of miscarrying—that remains—but a woman’s realization that she cares about the “clump of cells” she carried. As Alexandra Kimball’s recent essay in Canada’s Globe and Mail reveals, a modern woman is surprised to discover that, according to feminism, the difference between the death of a child and of an aborted fetus is simply the mother’s intent to continue the pregnancy.

I don't know about you, but for years now I have grown increasingly skeptical about a lot of the books and other products that continue to roll out from the publishing industry that surrounds the life and work of the great Oxford don and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.
Don't get me wrong. I have an entire room of my house that, basically, is dedicated to Eastern Orthodox icons, my family and C.S. Lewis. My son's middle name is "Lewis" and we almost used "Jack" as his first name. I read "The Great Divorce" every year during Lent.

Parishioners are terrified after protesters have disturbed Mass at several Catholic churches across the valley.
The group, Koosha Las Vegas, includes members who clearly identify themselves as former Muslims turned Christians. They’ve been entering churches during services, shouting at Catholics that they need to repent now or else, and filming the acts and posting them on the internet.

What are we actually celebrating when we go to Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception? (Hint: A lot more than you might think.) Here’s a crash course for your kids, and ideas for how to celebrate the feast.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (December 8) is a holy day of obligation in the United States, which means that practicing Catholics will do their best to get to Mass to celebrate the feast. But why are we celebrating, anyway? A lot of Catholic kids (and adults) don’t actually know, so here’s a little crash course that you can share with your kids in the car on the way to Mass.

A guide to “inclusive” Christmas decorations created by Cornell University warns that any decorations that remotely evoke religion, which includes stars and mistletoe, are incompatible with the school’s commitment to diversity.
The guidelines are buried inside a Cornell publication concerning fire safety guidelines for holiday decorations, and were first noticed by the website Campus Reform. The first half of the document concerns certain banned fire hazards, such as candles and metallic Christmas trees.
The second half of the document, though, veers off into a discussion of how to make the Christmas season more “inclusive.”

Following much discussion last year over whether Notre Dame would reduce its theology requirement from two courses to one, the committee in charge of the ten-year core curriculum review has advised that its theology courses are too essential to the University’s Catholic identity to be reduced, according to the draft report released on Monday. “In placing theology at the core of its Catholic liberal arts education, Notre Dame is not merely adding another discipline to the existing educational paradigm. Instead, it embraces a paradigm of the intellectual life that posits the complementarity of faith and reason,” stated the review committee’s initial draft report.

Sitting in the U.S. Senate right now is a reconciliation bill, already passed by the House, which advances two major conservative priorities:
1. Repealing major portions of Obamacare
2. Re-directing Planned Parenthood’s tax funding to entities that provide real health care to women and don’t abort children & harvest their body parts
What is so special about using the reconciliation process to advance these two priorities?
The process itself is complicated, but the most important thing to know is this: Reconciliation bills cannot be filibustered.

Sunday night’s episode of The Good Wife tackled the Center for Medical Progress’ Planned Parenthood videos. And in what may be this week’s Sign of the Apocalypse, I think CBS actually made pro-lifers look pretty good — and abortion supporters rather bad.
The episode focused on a pro-abortion lawyer defending a pro-life group that conducted an undercover video sting operation. The lawyer, Diane, fights for release of the videos on the basis of the First Amendment — and in doing so, sees clients abandon her firm and a judge engage in judicial activism.

As we near the end of the liturgical year and celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, let us remember the life of a young martyred Mexican Jesuit who was deeply devoted to Christ the King: Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro, S.J. (1891-1927). Today, November 23 is his feast day. Born January 13, 1891, at Guadalupe Zacatecas, Mexico, Miguel “Miguelito” Pro was the son of a mining engineer and a pious and charitable mother. From his earliest days, Miguel had a special affinity for the working classes which he kept all of his life. At age 20, he entered the Jesuit novitiate and shortly thereafter was exiled because of the Mexican revolution. He traveled to the United States, Spain, Nicaragua and Belgium, where he was ordained a priest in 1925. Father Pro suffered from chronic stomach ailments and when, after several operations his health did not improve, his Jesuit superiors allowed him to return to Mexico in 1926 despite the horrible religious persecution underway in Mexico.

A North Carolina doctor has developed a treatment that can reverse chemical abortions, providing an option for women who regret taking the abortion pill.
Since Dr. Matthew Harrison developed the Emergency Abortion Pill Reversal Kit, he has saved over 137 babies who were born without any complications, Fox 46’s Bill Melugin reported. Currently, there are 76 pregnant mothers who were able to stay pregnant after using the kit.

Planned Parenthood’s aggressive targeting of college students is no secret. But it is still disturbing when the abortion business manages to push its way onto traditionally pro-life college campuses.
Last week, Saint Mary’s College, a Catholic school in Notre Dame, Indiana, hosted a large pro-Planned Parenthood display on campus.
According to the Church Militant, Students for Life had organized a pro-life display exposing Planned Parenthood’s deceptive abortion practices on Oct. 15 at Saint Mary’s; and in response, the college Feminists United Student Group set up a counter-display on Oct. 29.

Am I the only Mama who feels like 5:00pm – 7:00pm are the worst hours of the day? I mean, what good occurs between 5:00pm – 7:00pm?
Nobody likes what we had for dinner.
You can smell my cat’s litter box from the driveway.
The dishes are teetering over the edge of the sink.
I can’t understand my 1st grader’s homework.
I’m tired.
My girls are tired.
Let’s be honest – even the cat’s in a bad mood.
And yet… it’s still… not… bedtime.

On Tuesday, the people of Houston will head to the polls to vote on a controversial measure that would create legal protections related to sexual orientation and gender identity, among other categories.
The so-dubbed “bathroom bill” has gained national attention, pitting Houston at the center of the latest battle between LGBT and religious liberty advocates.
But residents aren’t the only ones having a say in the debate. According to groups supporting the measure, a number of big businesses have gotten behind the ballot initiative, urging voters to say “yes.” Seven of the biggest include:

John Paul II, who served as Pope from 1978 to 2005 and was canonized a saint in 2014 by Pope Francis, declared in 1981 that the Church “reaffirms her practice” of not allowing divorced and remarried persons to receive Communion because to do so would contradict Church teaching and lead the faithful “into error and confusion” about the “indissolubility of marriage.”

Reflecting the light of God through our imperfections. A wonderful reflection from Mariele Courtois:

We are surrounded by several young children. Some are eager to befriend us, and others are more careful. “How are you?” we ask one young girl. She looks at us. We talk to her. About school. About the beautiful day. About anything. It is not exactly a conversation. It is only an attempt to put her at ease. Her responses are short and guarded.

My baby’s not an angel. And I’m glad for it. Almost anyone who has ever lost a child has probably heard it or said it themselves. In the midst of condolences or their own processing of grief, they are told that their child is now an angel. The platitudes are many:
You’re now a parent to an angel.
They just received their angel wings
I have two angel babies in heaven.
Now you have your own guardian angel.
There is talk of an “angel day”, jewelry with angel wings representing their baby or loved one, sweet poems regarding our new angels in heaven, and even Catholic companies selling items bedecked with winged babies as a memorial for miscarriage or infant loss. “Angel baby” is a common term in the miscarriage/infant loss world for a baby that has died.

Western countries do not identify with the Christian tradition, and harassed those who defend Christian values, said the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Wednesday at a meeting with US preacher Franklin Graham at the St. Daniel Monastery.

I know it's controversial. Don't care. It is the dehumanization of others.

This weekend, Ben Carson did what he does best. He clearly and plainly stated a mainstream conservative view that most Republican politicians dare not utter — in this case, that the debate over abortion is comparable to the debate over slavery. Speaking to NBC’s Chuck Todd, Carson said: “During slavery — and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say, but I’m saying it — during slavery, a lot of slave owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose. And what if the abolitionists had said, ‘I don’t believe in slavery, but you guys do whatever you want’? Where would we be?”

What’s the surest way to theological, spiritual, and moral chaos? Ignoring the Bible, of course.
In their book “The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters,” Chuck Colson and Harold Fickett wrote, “Knowing God is and He has spoken, enables the Christian to affirm that there is truth, an ultimate reality that begins with God and extends throughout his creation.”

Something is missing from the two trajectories emerging from the Vatican’s Synod on the Family.
The first trajectory emphasizes reaching out to the “lost sheep” where sex and marriage are concerned.
The second (dubbed the “Yes We Can!” plan by John L. Allen Jr.) — holds that people can really live according to Church teachings and that “we’re going to have your back in pulling it off!”
But what about about giving Catholics a floor to stand on? And a brightly lit path? In other words, what about a step that could both help prevent lost sheep and inspire strong families?

An auditor at the Synod on the Family in Rome says that the growing threat to families from the spread of gender ideology, particularly the danger it poses to all levels of education, has been discussed at length during the Synod. “[Gender ideology] has enormous implications for Catholic education at every level – including college,” said Dr. John Grabowski in an interview with The Cardinal Newman Society. Grabowski is a professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and an auditor and assistant to the General Secretary at the Synod. “The concern about ‘gender ideology’ has been discussed in the Synod, both in the general assembly and in small groups.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says that Planned Parenthood has “very serious legal issues” in Texas.
A letter was sent to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas on Monday notifying them that their Medicaid contracts will be terminated.
Abbott defended the state’s decision to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics, “money that they do not deserve,” on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” and says he expects and hopes for a legal challenge.

A Washington coach who was told by district officials to stop leading prayers after games went ahead with a prayer at the 50-yard line after a weekend game.
The Kitsap Sun reports Bremerton High assistant coach Joe Kennedy knelt as his players left the field and prayed on Friday. Players from the other team and others joined him.

The University of California, Santa Barbara has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit brought by two anti-abortion protesters after feminist studies professor Mireille Miller-Young mocked them, stole their sign, destroyed the sign and scratched up the wrists of one protester — a 16-year-old girl.

This moral miscreant can't even admit her own kids were human. Because that would give up the game.

A reporter with MRC TV recently asked Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz if her three children were “human beings” before they were born.
After a brief pause, Schultz replied, “I believe that every woman has the right to make their own reproductive choices.”
“What did you believe about your children though?” the reporter pressed.

Orphanages in India run by the Missionaries of Charity have decided to close their doors in light of new adoption guidelines that the sisters say violate their ideological and religious views.
Sister Amala, who serves at Nirmala Shishu Bhawan, a New Delhi orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity, explained the decision.
“The new guidelines hurt our conscience. They are certainly not for religious people like us,” she said, according to NPR.

After the Oregon shooting, Prof. Randall Smith is asked why are religion and violence linked? Here's what he wished he said:

I got a call this week from one of our university’s “public affairs” offices asking whether I would talk to a reporter from a local television station about the school shooting in Oregon.
“Why do they want a theologian?”
“Because the shooter may have been targeting people for being religious.”

On Oct. 5, The Catholic Voice, a publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, published the text of a homily by Father Dan Danielson, who all but endorses same-sex "marriage." Click here to read it (if you can stomach it).
I asked Father John Trigilio Jr., author, EWTN personality, and president of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, to respond to Father Danielson's assertions.
Father Trigilio's excellent response is as follows (slightly edited):

One morning in August, the social science reporter for National Public Radio, a man named Shankar Vedantam, sounded a little shellshocked. You couldn’t blame him.
Like so many science writers in the popular press, he is charged with reporting provocative findings from the world of behavioral science: “. . . and researchers were very surprised at what they found. The peer-reviewed study suggests that [dog lovers, redheads, Tea Party members] are much more likely to [wear short sleeves, participate in hockey fights, play contract bridge] than cat lovers, but only if [the barometer is falling, they are slapped lightly upside the head, a picture of Jerry Lewis suddenly appears in their cubicle . . . ].”

Until I was an adult who had found faith and this world of meaning, I knew very little about C. S. Lewis. He was the Oxford don who turned from atheism to belief in God because late one night in 1930 he was walking along a wooded path behind Magdalen College with his friend J. R. R. Tolkien. This was years before Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings and long before Lewis wrote his famous Chronicles of Narnia. They were just young men who had survived the grim horrors of World War I, who had seen the ghastly hell and death of the trenches and the gas warfare, and who were now brilliant young professors at Oxford University.
But as they walked and talked along that path, long past midnight, Tolkien had the grounding of a deep belief in something else, and Lewis did not. Tolkien felt that this world was not all there is, but Lewis felt that it was, that the sad horrors of the war they had both survived told them this, that this ugly world was all there is and ever would be and we must face this, although it made us sad to think of it. But surely Lewis — or Jack, as his friends called him — sometimes also wondered why, if it were true, it would make us sad. If it were true, why would something in us want it not to be true? What was that something in us, and how did it get there? What was the meaning of the fact that we should desire something else? What was the meaning of our desire for meaning?

Really, how hard can it be?
Sure, maybe you were the one in elementary school who rubber cemented your hands together. But that was a long time ago. Now you’re an adult with a small child. Why not show off your awesome adult competence by creating your own adorable, home spun Halloween costume? Your child will be amazed at their own lovingly made, one-of-a-kind, Halloween creation, and you will be a hero.
“How clever,” your friends will marvel, “What a brilliant, good parent you are! Your child is bound to become a president, with parenting like that!”
Well, we’ve been through it. And we want to share what we’ve learned. Here are the real ten steps to creating your own very special Halloween Creation..

Are you a Christian?
What would you say if a man holding a gun to your head asked this question?
Are you a Christian?
According to reports (and here), the recent mass shooter in Oregon—nameless, for our purposes—asked many of his victims about their faith before he pulled the trigger. Professing Christianity earned one a mocking retort, and a bullet to the head:

I didn’t know when I’d changed from a positive person to a negative one; I only knew I had.
I could still remember myself as a cheerful special education teacher, somehow managing to see the positives in every student and every situation, no matter how dismal.
But somewhere along the line, I stopped seeing the goodness.
I focused solely on what was wrong and what needed to be changed.
Given the fact I had a loving husband, two beautiful children, a healthy mind and body, and a safe and comfortable home, you would have thought I’d wake up every morning feeling grateful, optimistic, and content. But that was not the case.

The Synod is ongoing, but what about the rest of us, in the parishes, in the pews? The pope has returned to Rome and we've had a week of feasting on identifying as Catholic to the world. Now it's time for the work of being Catholic. As a member of the Catholic blogosphere (not an actual cabal or illuminati, it's my own made up name for the mass of Catholics out there blogging about either being Catholic, trying to live Catholic, or learning about Catholicism), the big question we're all left with, is now what?
Somehow, in the midst of feeding the homeless, clothing the naked, reading scripture, praying the rosary, standing up for the unborn, instructing the ignorant, and all of that, we've somehow sensed, we've missed something important. So important, there's a Synod on the Family going on, because all this doing has not done what it is supposed to do, create a community, a sense of being each others' brothers and sisters, in Christ, and in reality. Why hasn't that happened?

The Stream has uncovered alarming information about Planned Parenthood after submitting a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The request was spurred by a series of undercover videos suggesting that Planned Parenthood may be involved in illegal activity in the aborted fetal body parts aftermarket.
Under the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should be performing audits on Planned Parenthood, since Planned Parenthood is involved in research on aborted fetuses and HHS is supporting its work with funding. Specifically, according to HHS’s own documents, “Section 498A of the Public Health Service Act [42 USC 289g-1] requires the annual submission to Congress of a report describing research involving therapeutic transplantation of human fetal tissue supported or conducted by the NIH.” In the fourth undercover video released by the Center for Medical Progress, Dr. Savita Ginde, a Planned Parenthood abortion doctor in Colorado, revealed that the organization’s fetal harvesting is categorized as research, explaining, “Putting it under the research gives us a little bit of a, a little sort of an overhang over the whole thing.”

One of the questionable, and unfortunately common, forms of moral reasoning today is the rather narcissistic notion that God wants each of us to be happy. Sometimes it is put in the form of a rhetorical question: God wants me to be happy, doesn’t He?
And this sort of reasoning (if you want to call it that) is used to justify just about anything. Thus, in pondering divorce, a spouse might point to his or her misery and conclude that God would approve of the split because God wants me to be happy, doesn’t He? Many seek to justify so-called same-sex marriage, and other illicit sexual notions in the same way.

We’ve reported several mysterious media aversions to the mention of God in the last few days, so we should note the opposite. On ABC’s Dancing with the Stars on Monday night, a couple danced to “Amazing Grace.” Boy-band member Carlos PenaVega of the group Big Time Rush testified about finding God and his wife Alexa in one week’s time. After the excitement of a big tour ended, he felt down. “I started smoking weed like...every day, I was like ‘I don’t want to talk to anybody. I don’t want to see anybody.’ I really hit rock bottom."

The Holocaust is marked and memorialized at places like Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Dachau. But nearly half of the six million Jewish victims were executed in fields and forests and ravines, places that were not named and remain mostly unmarked today. They were slaughtered in mass shootings and buried in mass graves in the former Soviet Union, where until very recently, little had been done to find them.
Our story is about a man who's brought these crimes of the Holocaust to light. He is not a historian, or a detective or a Jew. He's a French Catholic priest named Father Patrick Desbois. And for the past 13 years, he has been tracking down the sites where many of the victims lie and searching for witnesses who are still alive; many of whom had never been asked before to describe the horrors they had seen more than 70 years ago.

As a young doctor on a cancer ward, I consoled myself with drink and New Age nonsense. Then one evening I stepped into a chamber of horrors
Looking back over my 29 years as a medic, I think my year at the cancer hospital was the hardest. Every fourth day and weekend without fail, I would cover the intensive care unit for 24 hours as the resident middle-grade doctor. In all my time there, not one patient survived, though not for lack of trying. Not one.

On Monday, the Washington Post ran a story about public opinion toward Planned Parenthood. According to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the shocking videos released by the Center for Medical Progress have purportedly resulted in little change in attitudes toward the organization. Additionally, the poll indicates that most Americans continue to support federal funding for Planned Parenthood. This poll has been touted by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post and covered by numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, The Hill, and National Public Radio.

Business entrepreneurs, authors and twin brothers David and Jason Benham said on Friday that the real threat to religious liberty is the threat faced by Christians.
When CNSNews.com asked what they felt posed the greatest threat to religious liberty, Jason Benham said, “The first thing that we’re saying is we don’t believe there’s a threat to religious liberty. We think there’s a threat to Christian liberty, because all other religions seem to be fine right now in America.”

Wait, we though they were heavily edited? Now they’re doctored? Um, whatever.
House Minority Leader Nanci Pelosi, D-Calif., questioned the truthfulness of the undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the harvesting and sale of fetal organs, while admitting that she has not watched the videos.

Phillip Hawley is awesome. The guy's a doctor, a best selling author, and he's off in South America providing coverage to poor people. And he writes articles as brilliant as this.

To understand how the barbaric acts revealed in the recent Planned Parenthood videos could have remained concealed for so long, look no further than the linguistic legerdemain by our country’s highest court, which in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling fashioned a scientific and cultural mythology that persists to this day.

Almost ten years ago, I was 19 years old, a freshman at Georgetown University. I was doing the last thing any woman with a bright future in front of her wants to do: sitting in a bathroom stall in the basement of a dorm, staring down, blankly, at a test. Positive.
I’d be lying if I said I felt a rush of anything. There wasn’t an immediate slew of thoughts of what I’d lose, nor some surge of maternal happiness you see portrayed in pregnancy test commercials. Just stillness. The beginning of a four-week journey of introspection.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) refused to say whether he thinks an unborn baby with a human liver and a human heart is a human being.
At Hoyer’s weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 16, CNSNews.com asked him: “On the abortion issue, do you think that an unborn baby with a human liver and a human heart is a human being?”
“Look, I’m not going to get into the medical questions on that very, very controversial and very tough issue for people. They have to make their determinations,” Hoyer responded.

MEMO FROM: Copy desk TO: New York Times Foreign desk RE: Diaa Hadid for AM international; mark-up attached HEAD: Jewish Man Dies as Rocks Pelt His Car in East Jerusalem [ED: “As rocks pelt his car”? How exactly did the rocks go about doing this? Are these special angry Palestinian rocks that get up off the ground and hurl themselves at Jews? Unless we’re talking about The Rock, in which case he’s going by “Dwayne Johnson” these days, I don’t think a rock is capable of committing an act of violence on its own.]

Despite donning the orange and blue of the Denver Broncos, Peyton Manning remains revered in Indianapolis.
Fourteen seasons, 11 playoff berths and one Super Bowl victory will elevate you to near immortality within a fan base that had grown accustomed to losing. But aside from his on-field exploits, Manning endeared himself to the community with his charitable acts off of it.
That still holds true regardless of his ZIP code, as Manning's latest act of benevolence was to fly a dying fan out to Denver for the Broncos' Week 1 contest against Baltimore.

All of us have difficulties with prayer and this is normal. Prayer is a relationship and one that takes a lot of work to even get to the point of being decent at it. This is the case for those who are trying for the first time or just trying to take prayer to the next level. If you read the Saints on prayer, all of them have struggled, so why would we think we are any different?
In many ways prayer is like any other relationship. Many of us start out basing it, in many ways, on good experiences and emotions. This, as in a romantic relationship, is a good thing, because it helps bring two people closer together. But, real love can only be fostered once we stop relying on emotional highs and great experiences. Once the emotions leave, we must decide to love the other person for their own sake, not what they do for us. Real love is choosing what is best for another regardless of the cost to myself.

A baby who was given just one per cent odds of survival after she was born one week before the abortion limit has defied doctors and is now thriving at eight months old.
Kaci-Rose Crathley was born via an emergency caesarean section at 23 weeks, and weighed just 1lb and 2oz - half the weight of a bag of sugar and measured 10.8 inches.
Doctors warned the tot’s mother, Sadie, 20, that there was a 99% chance her baby would die during delivery - telling her that they would not have tried to save the baby if she had gone into labour one day earlier.
However, Kaci-Rose did survive delivery and now weighs 8lbs - the same as an average newborn baby.

The left’s been wetting its pants over this for the past 24 hours so we can’t be more than a day away from a groveling Damon apology. Let’s get you up to speed so that you can enjoy the blue-on-blue while it lasts. CSM has the background on what they’re chattering about in the clip. Damon and his team are auditioning directors for a movie they’re making as part of their “Project Greenlight” show that features a scene of a black prostitute being slapped by her white pimp. Effie Brown, one of the judges on the show, wants the director to be a minority or a woman (or a team of the two) because she worries that someone who can’t relate to the black character will turn the scene into a cheap bit of exploitative stereotyping. That’s a valid concern, says Damon, but diversity in filmmaking should be about what happens in front of the camera, not behind it. Brown is bowled over. Watch to the end and you’ll find Damon reiterating the point in an interview later: If you let diversity concerns guide your choice of director, he says, “It seems like you would undermine what the competition is supposed to be about, which is about giving somebody this job based entirely on merit.”

Just months after the University of California was criticized for its “recognizing microaggressions” handout, the University of California Board of Regents will be considering a policy to make the university system “free from acts and expressions of intolerance.”
Eugene Volokh of the Washington Post reports the UC Regents Committee on Education Policy will be meeting to discuss a “statement of principles against intolerance.”

For decades, defunding Planned Parenthood has been the Mt. Everest of conservative public-policy ventures. High, serene, and bitterly cold, the abortion giant has repelled all attempts to reduce, much less eliminate, its massive federal funding. Adept at controversy, skilled at revenge, and agile at the margins of the law and beyond, Planned Parenthood has grown in both influence and animus under Republican and Democratic Congresses and presidents alike. No wonder some Republicans are reluctant to leave base camp, as it were, and try to end Planned Parenthood’s funding in the upcoming continuing resolution. A legacy of failed attempts makes their case. But are these GOP leaders of doleful countenance correct, or has Planned Parenthood finally opened a route to the summit? A case can be made that, no matter what the chances of success are in overcoming the sheer indifference of Barack Obama, now is the time for Republicans of all stripes to close ranks and send a message to Planned Parenthood honchos that their salad days are over. The video showing a nonchalant Planned Parenthood doctor sipping wine and chatting up the best way to crush an unborn child’s abdomen has gone viral for a reason — it is appalling. And, as subsequent videos from the Center for Medical Progress have shown, it is Planned Parenthood to a tee. Grasping, arrogant, indifferent.

TAYLOR SWIFT: Tell me, Socrates, must the player always play, play, play?
SOCRATES: Well, that depends on what it is to be a player and what it means to play. Could you be more specific?
SWIFT: I’m thinking of the dirty, dirty cheats of the world. Those about whom so many get down and out while they could be getting down to sick beats. Alcibiades, for example, abandoned Athens and sought refuge in Sparta, then left Sparta for Persia before finally returning to Athens, leaving an inter-imperial trail of broken hearts.
SOCRATES: Yes, I see. Alcibiades is, in fact, a player who will play, play, play.
SWIFT: Yes, very much so.
SOCRATES: But must he? That is the question at hand.

There will come a day, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, when the man in the coffin will be me. They say the dead don’t care, but I’m not dead yet, so as long as I’m still alive, I’d like to have some say in what goes on at my funeral. And, truth be told, I think the dead do care. Not that they will be privy to the details of what happens at their own funerals, but they still care about the world, about their family, about the church. The saints in heaven continue to pray for those who are still on their earthly pilgrimage, so how could they not care about them?
Because I do care now, and will care even after I’m with the Lord, here are some things I hope and pray are not said at my funeral. I care about those who will be there, about what they will hear. I want the truth to be spoken, the truth about sin, the truth about death, and, above all, the truth about the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Lately I’ve had the idea of essays pairing Hollywood movies with scholarly works I am reading: American Sniper, say, with the classic book On Killing, for example. By some strange coincidence I walked out of a showing of Kingsman just days after completing sociologists George Yancey and David A. Williamson’s new book, So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?

This weekend, BuzzFeed posted a video called “I’m Christian, But I’m Not…,” in which five women and one man said they were Christians but they weren’t, you know, like all the other men and women who are Christians. They cheerfully reminded God and others that they weren’t homophobic or closeminded, or uneducated, or judgmental, or placing themselves on pedestals. Featured respondents proudly announced they fasted twice a week were “queer” or “feminist!” or listened to Beyonce. One said she wished people knew that “Just because we prescribe [sic] to a faith that has some really terrible people in it doesn’t make all of us terrible,” followed by someone saying that “love is the most important thing.”

Forty-five years ago, a family with two severely disabled sons could not find a group willing to let them join in a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. Undaunted, the parents of Thaddee and Loic decided to go themselves, but the only hotel that would take them, insisted they only eat in their rooms so as to not disturb the other patrons. Several staff and guest remarked that the trip would not mean anything to the two boys; that the whole endeavor was a waste.

Richard G. Evans remembers the day he told his father he was gay.
The conversation took place in the driveway of Donald Evans’ home in Princeton in August 1992. It was on a Saturday during a weekend-long family reunion. Donald’s youngest child had summoned the courage to say something Donald had suspected for a while.
“I was nervous telling him, even though I was 36 years old at the time,” Richard said. “He was actually tinkering on the car, and that’s a good time to catch him because he loved doing mechanics. So, I shared with him that I had same-sex attraction.”
What happened next changed the course of Richard’s life. Bracing himself for possible disapproval, especially after his coming out led to a divorce from his wife a month earlier, he got something else instead.

Yesterday the media were ecumenical in their ignorance, first completely messing up a story about some papal declaration.
Leaving aside the complex particularities of Roman Catholic limitations on what can and can’t be forgiven by priests (as opposed to bishops), the general point of all Christianity is forgiveness for our sins. And it’s not some newfangled thing. We’ve been preaching the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus for, what, 2000 years? Or check out this doozie:

(CNSNews.com) - At a press conference outside the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday, ForAmerica Chairman President Brent Bozell said it would be best to remove the bust of eugenicist Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, from the National Portrait Gallery and put it in a “far off place,” in a “deep hole,” and then “apologize to the dirt.”

NBC and CBS are happily covering the “great news” of a “fetus” and unborn “baby” – but it’s not one of those torn apart in the recent Planned Parenthood videos. In fact, it’s not even human.
It’s been one full day, but ABC, NBC and CBS still haven’t covered the latest Planned Parenthood video detailing the cutting open of an aborted baby with scissors – a baby whose heart was still beating, according to a witness. Instead, the morning and evening news shows from NBC and CBS gushed over the pregnancy of the National Zoo’s giant panda, Mei Xiang, beginning with showing an ultrasound of the “fetus.”

A Reddit photo of a man running on a treadmill next to a boy standing with the help of a brace has gone viral.
“He used to be in a coma, I used to be a fat guy,” the photo caption reads. “My son is recovering from a brain injury. We have a deal now. If he’s standing, I’m running.”
The photo, which has received nearly 2.7 million views, features Rick Delashmit and his 12-year-old son, Reece, who can now stand for 90 minutes at a time.

Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal will counter pro-Planned Parenthood protests today with a protest of his own -- in the form of a continuous video loop of the seven undercover videos showing illegal abortions and fetal harvesting by Planned Parenthood clinics.

Monsignor Charles Pope, a popular blogger and a Catholic priest in Washington, D.C., has been blocked from using Facebook. The social media behemoth says it prefers users to use their “everyday names” so that people know who they’re connecting with, and formal titles can get tagged as inauthentic.
“It’s not just me, it’s a lot of people with titles who are having trouble,” Msgr. Pope told CNS News. “It’s people in the military, people in religious life – even Native Americans are getting blocked. They told me I can’t use monsignor, but that’s who I am.”
Pope scanned a copy of his driver’s license and sent it to Facebook, hoping that the company will quickly fix the problem.

After the release of the seventh CMP Planned Parenthood baby parts video, it seemed to me as if there should have been enough time for this saga to sink into the national consciousness and raise some questions. (At a minimum.) That’s why it was rather surprising when I was flipping through the news and noticed the results of this Reuters/Ipsos poll which claims, in the headline, Americans back federal funds to Planned Parenthood for health services.

This is great. I personally never had any of my children screaming or crying in public but I understand why you bad parents might have experienced something similar to this.

I am sorry. To all you moms out there who can’t go out to eat because your kid screams and ruins your dinner, I am so sorry. Until now, I’ve been incredibly spoiled and I may have even thought it was your fault that your kid was screaming during dinner. (I may have judged you a little.) My first two children–girls–were what we called white tablecloth babies. We could take them to the best upscale restaurant on the Magnificent Mile and they wouldn’t make a peep. They would eat their dinner and play with a toy and everyone would smile at them and compliment me. I thought I was soooooo good at this mothering thing. What a fool I was.
My darling son just turned one. This is the one who already got me yelled at on a plane (another first). He has one volume: LOUD. He screams if his food isn’t in front of him quickly enough, when he runs out of zucchini and hot dogs, when he’s thirsty, tired, angry, happy, sticky, uncomfortable, bored, or just having fun. He has one mode of communication: screaming

I especially like the one guy who asks if the Gov's Facebook site was hacked.

Further proof that anti-Catholicism is alive and well:
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) got a lesson in religious tolerance over the weekend after posting an image of the Virgin Mary accompanied by praise on his Facebook page, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Christian Today reported earlier this month that Cuba has seen a “Bible boom” over the last few months. In fact, almost 83,000 copies of the Bible entered the country through the International Missions board last month, according to Christian Today.
Similarly, The American Bible Society, which started the “Million Bible Mission” last year to spread Bibles across the world, gave about 60,000 Bibles to Cuba in 2014, according to Christian Today.
"With a population of 11 million, a literacy rate of nearly 100 percent and an unprecedented growth in Christianity thanks to social, economic and political reforms, many Cubans are seeking guidance and hope found in God's Word," the American Bible Society said in a statement. "As a result of this unprecedented spiritual and cultural shift, demand for Bibles has outpaced supply. In addition, many Cubans cannot afford to import high-quality Bibles."
Part of the surge may be because Cuba lifted its Bible ban back in May, according to Charisma News. The ban, which started 50 years ago, kept Bibles from bookshelves and only allowed them in churches, Charisma News reported.

Before I had kids I thought problems were black and white. Right and wrong. And in most situations I thought I was right.
I had my 2 boys (4 years old and 17 months) to myself as Pat was traveling. My little guy fell and cut his hand at the playground so when we got home I cleaned it out.
This was my workout for the day: holding him steady through the Triple Lindy he performed to get out of my arms while I ran the washcloth over his small wound. That was BEFORE the neosporin came out.
I’ve always imagined that Olympic sprinters’ mothers knew they had winners from an early age. To see my little dude bolt out of the bathroom like the gold medal was on the line made me hopeful for future glories. But today, I was more concerned about infection.

On "The Five" today, Greg Gutfeld reacted to the latest in the Planned Parenthood scandal.
Gutfeld pointed out that scientists are saying that fetal tissue is "essential," pointing to its use in vaccines. He said this actually destroys Planned Parenthood and pro-choice advocates' defense.
"You already admit what was killed has value. Or, it could not be wasted - unless you view the unborn as recyclable," Gutfeld said. "In the old days, adults existed to enhance a baby’s survival. Now, adults use babies for their survival. It’s reversed."

Between 2001 and 2009 Abby Johnson worked for the Southeast Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic, the same place where the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) filmed the fifth undercover video showing PP selling aborted baby parts. In an interview with the Daily Signal which is unrelated to CMP, Ms Johnson said employees received a bounty for each woman they convinced to allow their baby to be mutilated and sold off in pieces.

For the last 30 years, I’ve supported abortion rights. This year may be different.
The only thing I hate more than talking about abortion is writing about it. It’s no accident that, in 2000 columns over a quarter century, I have never—ever—written about abortion. I’ve avoided the topic like a root canal.
But that is getting harder to do with the release of what are now five gruesome, albeit edited, undercover videos by The Center for Medical Progress depicting doctors and other top officials of Planned Parenthood discussing, and even laughing about, the harvesting of baby organs, as casually as some folks talk about the weather.

On Monday, a vote in the U.S. Senate to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood received 53 votes — falling seven short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster. This outcome is certainly disappointing to many pro-lifers. But there are at least three reasons for optimism.

Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on the “intrinsic evil” of abortion, Catholic Colleges throughout the country continue to promote student internships and volunteer opportunities at Planned Parenthood—the country’s largest abortion provider. In fact, at the same time Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued a statement decrying the “throwaway culture” that has “enslaved the hearts and minds of so many” through abortion and the selling of “fetal tissue” at Planned Parenthood, students enrolled in the sociology internship course at Boston College, one of Boston’s premier Catholic colleges, were encouraged to apply for internships at the Planned Parenthood League of Greater Boston (p. 18).

When the Center for Medical Progress first began releasing videos of its undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ordered an investigation into its practices in the state. After a query to the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, its president, Melaney Linton, sent a reply to Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals denying any connection to organ harvesting or transfers. PPGC, Linton insisted, had no role in abortions or in brokering tissue:

"No minimally decent society can support an organization whose business is killing and harvesting body parts for money."

Planned Parenthood is in full damage control mode. It is working on impugning the credibility of pro-life undercover investigators from the Center for Medical Progress who just today released another video on the abortion provider's barbaric practices.
It is also defending the technical legality of its practice of harvesting organs for a fee during abortions, deploying its allies in the media and the White House, and seeking desperately to restore its carefully constructed and ferociously defended image as an organization primarily focused on women's health, and only secondarily involved in providing abortions.

Last Thursday Alaska Governor Bill Walker announced that he would use his executive authority to expand Alaska’s state Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act. Walker’s proposal would extend Medicaid eligibility to all Alaskans earning less than 133 percent of the poverty line. Walker reported that he sent a letter to the Alaska legislature’s Budget and Audit Committee, giving legislators the required 45-day notice of his plan. The committee can make recommendations, but Walker said he has legal authority to move forward without the legislature’s approval.

There's a new Planned Parenthood video, even more telling than the last. But I posted my piece on Saturday (a low traffic day normally) and in light of this new expose, it's even more important that these people receive our earnest prayers.
Dr. Mary Gatter, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Medical Directors' Council President wants a Lamborghini. All I can think is, "But for Wales." So I'm relinking to my Saturday piece, Prayers and Fasting in hopes of getting more people to publicly adopt a specific abortionist they will pray and fast for over the course of the next year.
It is not shocking that people sell other people for money, or parts for money. We do this as a culture without thinking about it. We sell human eggs, we sell sperm. We sell wombs. We sell porn (selling the outside while destroying the inside). What we don't do is sell pieces...of people. Except here, we do. Why? Because they've convinced themselves, these children are not people.

The French Revolution launched the first modern genocide, aimed at Christians. John Zmirak reports:

Tuesday, July 14 probably passes without much fanfare in your home, but the date, Bastille Day, marks the beginning of the greatest organized persecution of Christians since the Emperor Diocletian. This day, the beginning of the French Revolution, also planted the seeds for the murderous ideologies of socialism and nationalism that would poison the next two centuries, murdering millions of believers and other innocent civilians. Between them, those two political movements racked up quite a body count: In Death By Government, scholar R. J. Rummel pointed out that
during the first 88 years of this century, almost 170,000,000 men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; or buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens or foreigners.
But the first such modern genocide in the West took place in France, beginning in 1793.

One of those speakers was the President of the College Dr. Bill Thierfelder, and author of the book Less than a Minute to Go the secret for success in sport business and everyday life. who after the event was over was engaged in conversation in the same area where I was uploading my video when I heard something that made me leap out of my chair.

In 2008, the Reproductive Rights Action League (RALY) at Yale held an abortion workshop to commemorate Roe vs. Wade. It was also sponsored by Yale Medical Students for Choice. The participants received training in how to do abortions. They simulated abortion procedures with abortion instruments and papaya fruit.
One of the organizers, a medical student named Rasha Khoury, said the following in an article about the event in Yale Daily News. She was talking about the remains left in the suction device after an abortion:
It’s not as scary as it seems. It’s just blood and mucus. You’ll be able to see arms and stuff, but still just miniscule.

This afternoon the Wisconsin State Assembly passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The legislation previously passed the State Senate and now heads to the Governor’s desk. In March, Gov. Scott Walker sent an open letter in firm support of the legislation, saying, “I will sign that bill when it gets to my desk and support similar legislation on the federal level. I was raised to believe in the sanctity of life and I will always fight to protect it.”

Despite serious challenges facing Catholic education in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly told Jason Calvi of EWTN News Nightly that Catholics must preserve Catholic education.
“The truth is still the truth and we have to keep teaching it,” Reilly stated in the interview that aired Wednesday. “We have to teach a new generation.”
“There’s no one that can take that right and that necessary action of Catholics away from us,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is certainly no stranger to clashing with the Catholic Church over its pro-life position. This is especially the case when it comes to Catholic hospitals refusing to perform abortions. A lawsuit from 2013 over such an incident has now been thrown out by a federal judge in Michigan.

A new Florida law establishing a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion came into effect last week.
Gov Rick Scott signed the measure, known as HB 633, into law in June.
The bill had major support in the state Legislature, passing 77-41 in the House and 26-13 in the Senate.
Rep Jennifer Sullivan, House sponsor of the Bill said its purpose is not to change access or to shut down clinics.
She said: “It’s just common courtesy to have a face-to-face conversation with your doctor about such an important decision – especially for such an irreversible procedure as an abortion.
“The purpose of this bill is to empower women to make an informed decision, versus a pressured, rushed, unexpected one.”

The Episcopalian marriage of Fordham University’s theology chairman to his same-sex partner, just one day after the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling, begins a new flood of challenges to Catholic identity that most Catholic colleges and universities are unprepared to face, warns Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly.

During the past few days a number of commentators have discussed the numerous parallels between the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Obergefell v. Hodges and the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In neither case was the majority opinion grounded in the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, social conservatives are likely feeling a similar sense of disenfranchisement and betrayal. Social conservatives should, however, take heart. We are now in a much better situation today than we were in 1973. This is for three reasons:

On Facebook this is my profile pic:
Therese_von_Lisieux (1)
It is a picture of St Therese of Lisieux. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a personal message telling me this:
“Hello. How are you doing? nice to meet you my dear i got Attracted in your good looking profile and really wish if we can be friend.”

Under the banner of what is dishonestly called a gay pride or gay “rights” flag, hate, fascism, and intolerance has festered for years, specifically against Christians and conservatives. Under the auspices of a “rights and equality” symbol, Leftists have been on a rampage to take way the rights of others through bullying, lies, and online terrorism.
The list of misdeeds and victims resulting from an increasingly emboldened Big Gay Hate Machine continues to grow.
Under this banner of hate, people are outed against their will, terrorized out of business merely for being Christian, bullied and harassed for thoughtcrimes; moreover, “hate crimes” are being manufactured to keep us divided, Christians are refused service, death threats are hurled, and Christianity is regularly smeared as hate speech.
If individuals wish to fly this symbol of hate, oppression and bigotry on their own property, that is their choice in a free country. It is unconscionable, however, that this symbol of intolerance is allowed to fly above government-owned buildings.

Colorado’s Supreme Court has struck down a far-reaching school voucher program used by one of the state’s largest school systems, ruling that it illegally diverts taxpayer money to religious schools.
Officially, the voucher program created by the Douglas County School District in 2011 offers money for students to attend any private school, but more than 96 percent of participants prior to the program’s suspension in 2011 chose religious schools.
In response to the staggering numbers, a coalition including the ACLU, Taxpayers for Public Education, the Americans United For Separation of Church and State sued, arguing the program was illegal, and the state’s high court finally agreed Monday.

Dred Scott v. Sandford was the infamous case in which the Supreme Court of the United States, usurping the constitutional authority of the people acting through their elected representatives in Congress, purported to deny the power of the United States to prohibit slavery in the federal territories. It is very much worth recalling that Dred Scott was not just a case about slavery. It was a case about the scope and limits of judicial power. It was a case in which judges, lacking any warrant in the text, structure, logic, or historical understanding of the Constitution, attempted to impose their own favored resolution of a morally charged debate about public policy on the entire nation.

A few weeks ago, after Ireland voted to approve so-called “same-sex marriage,” a correspondent sent me an e-mail quoting Cardinal Walter Kasper’s comment on the result: “A democratic state has the duty to respect the will of the people, and it seems clear that, if the majority of the people wants such homosexual unions, the state has a duty to recognize such rights.” I certainly hope the cardinal was either misquoted or mistranslated. For that comment, taken at face value, would suggest that a distinguished theologian-bishop has seriously misunderstood the nature of democracy and the Church’s teaching about just political communities.

“Morality clauses” and high standards for Catholic school teachers are not radical new policies as portrayed by secular news media, but simply implement what the Vatican has been demanding for several decades, reveals a timely new report from The Cardinal Newman Society. “The Vatican has consistently recognized that teachers—lay, clerical or religious—have an essential role in Catholic education and must serve as witnesses to the faith, in both word and deed,” writes Dr. Jamie Arthur, director of the Newman Society's Catholic Education Honor Roll, in her study titled, The Call to Teach: Expectations for the Catholic Educator in Magisterial Teaching.

If same-sex marriage comes to America, it will not be because Americans asked for it.
In the last 15 years the question was put to the people in nearly every state of the union. Even in liberal states like California, even on ballots in purely democratic primaries, the people voted overwhelmingly to keep the definition of marriage unchanged.
Gay activists were confident going into many of these contests because the polls promised them big wins. Yet when people stepped into the ballot box, man-woman marriage won. Polls are one thing. Polling places are another.

Obianuju Ekeocha pleads for mercy for the unborn whose mothers were raped by Boko Haram.

When I was growing up in the South-Eastern Nigerian city of Owerri, I remember once when unspeakable crimes were committed, a poor boy was kidnapped, killed for ritual, and cut up like an animal. These acts signified a very dark time for my people. Eventually a group of men were arrested in connection with the crimes, they were swiftly charged, judged, convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad. I remember, albeit with the immature mind of a teenager, that many people accepted and even welcomed this verdict because of the gravity of the crimes the men were convicted of.
For months after the verdict the people of Owerri lived in peace under the logic that if these men were killed then justice would have been done and equilibrium will be returned to our world. And so there was little or no appeal for the condemned men and there was no recourse to mercy. Once they were put on death row, many forgot about them and there they lived in our maximum security prison for months and months and months. They were heavily guarded, powerless, subdued and unable to hurt anyone else. This was how it was until the day crept up on us all. The day of execution.

Christianity is in decline. The “Nones” are ascendant. And Millennials are the driving force for the entire demographic disruption. So says the prevailing coverage of the latest Pew Research Center survey released in May. Millennials are leaving Christianity at a higher rate than in previous generations, and by all indications, becoming less likely than ever before to return later in life, according to one of the largest studies ever conducted on changes in America’s religious habits. The study, led by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge, further showed that the divide between the less-religious Millennials and their predecessors is a true generational one; it’s not merely a result of Millennials’ being young and restless. Americans are shifting dramatically to the left on key social issues, as mainline denominations hurtle over the edge and cafeteria Catholics leave the table. As two millennial Christians, we have some ideas about why that is and how to reverse the trend.

It is craven, self serving and proof sin (in this case the desire to be admired) makes you stupid, but there should be some sort of annual Mommy Awards.
Mommy Awards aren't for "best mom," because that spot's already taken by my own mother. The Mommies are for doing what no one else will do, the unreasonable, the impossible, and the obnoxious. We as moms, do not get the praise we deserve. One day out of three hundred and sixty-five does not cut it. Besides, that day we get flowers and breakfast in bed for BEING, not for what we've done.
These are MERIT based trophies, designed to call attention to the winner, for having the fortitude to endure the call of motherhood. As with any award ceremony, there are many categories in which one might be nominated.

Michael Winters of the National Catholic Reporter continues to burnish his well-earned reputation for malicious dishonesty.
Winters accuses me of "attempting to co-opt the Church’s teaching authority for crass political ends." His evidence? "All five of [Robert George's] non-negotiables [abortion, embryo destructive research, redefining marriage, euthanasia, and human cloning] align with positions articulated by today’s socially conservative Republican Party." If you've had even an introductory level course in logic you immediately perceived the fallacious inference--the non sequitur. He has offered no evidence whatsoever to show that I chose these issues or stress their importance because they line up with Republican Party positions. The truth is that I support the Republican Party (and left the Democratic Party) because of the Republicans' pro-life stance. Winters' suggestion that I chose or stress the issues because that helps the Republicans is the very reverse of the truth. And he knows it.

Pro-life activist Linda Couri’s first experience with Planned Parenthood was a lot like that of many young women. She turned to her local Planned Parenthood for her first gynecological exam, and it continued to be her clinic of choice for check-ups. The staff members at Planned Parenthood were always kind and professional towards her, and they became the first women Couri would entrust with her health.
That’s why, as she attended college to become a social worker, Couri chose Planned Parenthood as the non-profit at which she would volunteer. And it’s also why, when she earned her degree as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Couri jumped at the chance to work at PP.

Hollywood star says he prays and tries to go to church every day
Mark Wahlberg has said he never would have been able to get his life back on track if it weren’t for his parish priest.
In an interview with Square Mile, Wahlberg said he was saved from a life of drugs and violence as a teenager when his priest, Fr James Flavin, took him under his wing.

The principal of a Florida high school says the controversy over a Christian cross on a graduation cap was overblown.
According to the Gainesville Sun, a cap with a cross decoration was not worn at Chiefland High School’s commencement ceremony Friday, after the senior was told she wouldn’t be allowed to wear it when getting her diploma, which angered some in the audience.
Principal Matt McLelland confirmed that a student, who was not identified, had a decorated cap. She was given a plain cap before the ceremony because of restrictions on decorating graduation caps.

The culture war against Christianity is picking up speed.
Last week came word Saint Louis University will remove a heroic-sized statue of Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet S.J. from the front of Fusz Hall, where it has stood for 60 years.
The statue depicts Fr. De Smet holding aloft a crucifix as he ministers to two American Indians, one of whom is kneeling.
Historically, the statue is accurate. Fr. De Smet, "Blackrobe," as he was known, was a 19th-century missionary to Indian tribes who converted thousands. A friend of Sitting Bull, he spent his last years in St. Louis.
And as the mission of this Jesuit university is, presumably, to instruct the Catholic young in their faith and send them out into the world to bring the good news of Jesus Christ as Lord and savior to nonbelievers, what exactly is the problem here?

Pro-choice Methodist minister John M Swomley who was the subject of a LifeNews article in May, attempts to refute the claim that preborn babies are “innocent.” The argument appeared in a book over a decade old, but it is so strange and disturbing that I’m writing about it now that it has come to my attention.
The gist of Swomley’s argument is that preborn babies are not “innocent” as pro-lifers claim, but are actually guilty – guilty enough, he implies, to justify aborting them.

In a recent meeting with sick children and their parents, Pope Francis once more thundered against abortion, this time comparing the abortion mentality to the code of the Mafia, who “take out” a person when he gets in their way.
In a private meeting in the chapel of his Santa Marta residence on Friday evening, the Pope praised the parents of the sick children, expressing his admiration for their fortitude and courage. Francis also repeated the testimony of one of the dads present, who said he and his wife had been advised to abort their child once doctors realized he would be born handicapped.

In Myanmar, the government will now require women to space births at least 36 months apart. (It remains to be seen how this requirement will be enforced; a UN rapporteur foresees serious human-rights problems.) This sort of blatant government interference in family affairs could never happen in the US, right? Right?
Now that Uncle Sam can set standards for what qualifies as proper medical care, and determine what costs must be covered under health-insurance plans, there is a clear temptation to micro-manage. Is it too far-fetched to imagine a future in which government officials declare that spacing children is “best practice,” and insurance policies should not compensate women for doing otherwise?

Pro-lifers know that abortions are sad and brutal procedures where babies are killed and women scarred for life.
The abortionists who perform these procedures are sometimes challenged by stigma, pro-life pressures, and the grisliness of procedures, while some seem to be in it for the money.

And make their decision based on which colleges offer faithful Catholic education:

If a Catholic college cannot assure that its theology professors are imparting the truths of the faith, then families should look to more faithful Catholic institutions, suggested Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Fla., in an interview with The Cardinal Newman Society. Sound theology is the heart of Catholic higher education; it helps students direct their learning, explore the beauty of the faith and better understand their relationship with God and the Church. Therefore the Church provides the academic mandatum, an acknowledgment by the local bishop of a “professor’s commitment and responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the Church’s magisterium,” according to the U.S. bishops’ guidelines.

A United States Marine was convicted at a court-martial for refusing to remove a Bible verse on her computer – a verse of Scripture the military determined “could easily be seen as contrary to good order and discipline.”
The plight of Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling seems unbelievable – a member of the Armed Forces criminally prosecuted for displaying a slightly altered passage of Scripture from the Old Testament: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”

Should transgender parents be able to adopt?
In April, President Obama made it clear he thinks they do. In a presidential proclamation for National Foster Care Month, Obama wrote, “With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure all qualified caregivers have the opportunity to serve as foster or adoptive parents, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.” (Emphasis mine.)
The proclamation relates Obama’s latest thoughts on what’s best for LBGT adults. But what’s best for children?

The quick jump to assuming racism would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

Would you rather live in Robert Downey Jr.’s world of ‘do unto others as you’d have them to do you,’ or The New Yorker’s, where any weakness is an excuse to write people off forever?
In a recent piece for The New Yorker, critic Richard Brody purports to offer “Advice for Robert Downey Jr.” I honestly couldn’t make it past the second paragraph without letting my eyes wander off the page in a heady fog of annoyance and bewilderment:

A Catholic priest’s support for a campaign that advocates the redefinition of marriage was not the direct reason for his removal as campus minister at Seton Hall University, despite his claim to the contrary and subsequent media reports, the Archdiocese of Newark told The Cardinal Newman Society in a statement yesterday.
The incident did, however, cause the Archdiocese to reconsider the position description for Seton Hall’s campus ministry director and to clarify the director’s “accountability to the University and to the Archbishop,” the Archdiocese said. It described plans to assign a new director of campus ministry as an “important opportunity to undertake that clarification.”

In the ten-year period from 2003 to 2012, the number of American children 5 through 17 years old who were being homeschooled by their parents climbed by 61.8 percent, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Education.
At the same time, the percentage of all U.S. students in the 5-through-17 age group who were homeschooled increased from 2.2 percent to 3.4 percent.

A public dispute has broken out between Germany’s top lay Catholic organization and a German bishop, after the organization issued a statement calling for a raft of new pastoral practices, which the bishop and other critics say are opposed to Church doctrine.
The Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (Central Committee of the German Catholics, or ZdK) issued a statement Sunday calling for the admittance of civilly remarried divorcees to holy Communion, acceptance of all forms of cohabitation, the blessing of same-sex couples and the reconsideration of the Church’s teaching on contraception.

Students silent about honoring abortion supporter but livid about honoring a Cardinal. Awesome.

The Cardinal Newman Society has discovered that the Jesuit Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., will honor at Sunday’s commencement ceremony—alongside Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York—human rights activist Lois Whitman, who works for a pro-abortion group and serves on the boards of two pro-abortion organizations.